Soul of a Machine
by VinnyLB
Summary: Does a machine have a soul? What happens when a synthoid with emotions is destroyed? (More angsty than my usual fic.)


**_Soul of a Machine_**   
by Vanessa

  
  


Does a machine have a soul? What happens when a synthoid with emotions is destroyed? 

Author's note: I don't usually like to write angsty, sad fan fics, but when I got this idea I just had to turn it into a story. 

_Du ar mit liv, om ve bara har timmar kvar._   
"You are my life when we only have hours left."   
~"Den Sista Du Ser" ("The Last One You See"), artist unknown 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 

Infiltration Unit Zeta lay on the smooth metal table, staring up at the bright lights of the laboratory and listening to the murmur of the scientists in the other room. They were debating what to do about him. Some wanted to dismantle him and use the parts to make more Infiltration Unit Prototypes, others wanted to wipe out his positronic mind and all his memories, giving them the opportunity to reformat his mind, and still others wanted to investigate what exactly had "gone wrong" with him and try to fix it. It would be up to the government to decide his fate. 

Only Doctor Eli Selig seemed to be on Zeta's side. Nothing had gone wrong, he insisted. Zeta had somehow grown a mind of his own and decided it was wrong to kill. Whatever had happened to him should be treated as a miracle of artificial intelligence, not as some flaw in his design to be repaired. Zeta knew, though, that the government would not side with his creator, and whatever decision was reached would result in the destruction of everything he had fought so hard to become. 

But that didn't matter, Zeta thought sadly. Not anymore. Yes, he had a conscience. Yes, he had feelings, but there was one important thing that separated him from humanity. Did he have a soul? He and Ro had discussed it before, when they had time to slow down and discuss things... 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 

"What's a soul?" 

She smiled up at him and leaned her head against his shoulder. "Where did that come from?" 

Zee knew that his childish questions sometimes annoyed Ro, but he couldn't help wondering about certain things. "I've been thinking about it lately, and I've done some research, but every source tells me something different. I wanted to know what your belief is." He trusted Ro more than any book or computer. She would give him the answer he needed. 

She looked out the window of the bus and sighed. "A soul... I guess a soul is what makes us who we are. It's what gives us our emotions and our beliefs, and when we die, our souls are what's left of us... if that makes sense." 

He smiled and nodded. He liked her explanation more than the encyclopedia version. "Do you think... Do you think that _I_ have a soul?" 

Ro looked back at him and was quiet for a long time. Finally, she smiled. "I think anyone who treats people as nicely as you do has a soul, Zee. I know you definitely have a heart." She rested against his shoulder again and hugged him tightly. "Besides, I'm sure we'll never have to test that theory. I'm not going to let anything happen to you." 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 

She kept her promise. It wasn't her fault that he had been captured by the NSA and brought in for reprogramming. She had tried to prevent it. He wished that she hadn't, he thought, trying to ignore the discussions in the next room. If she hadn't been so intent on protecting him, or if he had been protecting her better, she might be able to help him out of this situation. They would be able to escape from the government again, and everything would be back to normal. 

It was pointless to think about hypothetical situations, though. For the hundredth time that day, he wished he could cry. He was dying inside and had no way to express the painful emotions that consumed him when he thought of Ro. Ro had been his best friend, the only one in the world he could trust. She taught him everything about humanity and believed him when no one else did. They were closer than friends, closer than family; he had no way to describe the relationship they had... and now, she was gone. 

She had tried to protect him when the NSA fired on him. She had jumped in front of him and was shot by one of the other agents. She sacrificed her life to save him, but when he saw that she was dead, nothing mattered to him anymore. He let himself be captured, and now he would let himself be destroyed and rebuilt. Without Ro, he had no reason to fight anymore.   
  
Hours passed, and the conversations in the next room came to a stop. They had reached a decision. He wouldn't be told what they had decided. Why would they tell him? To everyone but Selig, he was no more alive than a toaster. To them, he was an unfeeling, soulless piece of malfunctioning machinery. Maybe they were right. Maybe whatever had happened to him wasn't the result of some miracle that gave him a soul. Maybe the simpler explanation, that there was some glitch in his programming, was true. 

But Ro had believed in him. Ro had believed that he was more than a jumble of parts and programming, that he had a heart and a soul, and he had always believed everything Ro said.   
  
He recognized some of the scientists who came into the room, but only paid attention to his creator, who stood apart from the rest as if he wanted nothing to do with what was happening. The other scientists checked Zeta's restraints, then hooked him up to countless machines and computers. He wasn't going to be dismantled. They were going to destroy who he had become, what Ro had called his soul. 

Slowly, the machines began to do their work, and Zeta could feel all his acquired knowledge slip away from him as his positronic mind was cleared. Names of people he and Ro had met and places they had been were wiped out completely, cleared away to make room for a new personality. Finally, only one thought remained, and he held onto it frantically until it was also ripped away from him. In his last moments of consciousness, he spoke that final thought. 

"Ro..." 

The lost memories flooded back to him all at once, and it suddenly seemed that he was no longer lying on the metal table. He stood apart from the scientists in the laboratory, all crowded around to see the newly reprogrammed Infiltration Unit Zeta. He was confused at first, and he looked down at himself to see that he was in his human form. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't change the hologram. 

"Zee!" 

The voice he thought he would never hear again startled him, and he spun away from the laboratory scene. Ro stood only feet away, smiling warmly at him and shining with an angelic light. He stepped slowly towards her and reached out, as if afraid that she was only an illusion. She threw her arms around him and held him tightly. 

"Ro?" he whispered. "How...?" 

"You had a soul after all. The government tried to erase it, but they couldn't. When we die, our souls are what's left, and they live forever... remember?" 

"I remember. I thought I would never see you again, Ro. Why did you sacrifice your life to save me?" 

"Because I love you, Zee... and I knew that I would see you again, and I would be waiting here for you." She looked back at the scientists and at the empty shell of what had been Zeta. "That's not you anymore," she said quietly. "You don't belong here. Come with me..." 

He nodded and turned his head from his former life, facing Ro and wrapping his arms around her. As she stretched up to kiss him, a bright light consumed them, and they vanished. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ 

_This is definitely not my kind of fan fiction, so there won't be any more like this, and if this one isn't good it's because I never write depressing stories about the death of my favorite characters. ^^; I just can't stand to get an idea and then not write it!_


End file.
